Overview

• Employment in Hamburg’s aviation sector has climbed 18% since 2019 to nearly 49,000 workers, while gross value added rose almost 35% to €6.9 billion.
• Hamburg ranks as the world’s third-largest aviation hub behind Toulouse and Arlington County, anchored by Airbus’s Finkenwerder plant and Lufthansa Technik’s facilities with a combined workforce of about 28,000.
• Aviation exports now account for nearly half of Hamburg’s total export volume, underscoring the sector’s vital role in the city’s trade balance.
• Companies in the region invest roughly €470 million annually in research and development, yielding around 200 patents since 2019 and supported by over €380 million in EU, federal and state funding over the past five years.
• A recent study urges deeper industry-academic-government collaboration, reduced bureaucracy and upgraded digital and transport infrastructure to drive innovation and ease a growing shortage of skilled workers.